His head was still wrapped in bandages, as was his entire chest area. He sat on a mattress in a room that resembled a VIP hospital room.
Arya was wearing special white silk pajamas. As he looked around, he began to understand why ordinary civilians sometimes envied void hunters. The treatment was completely different, and if he wanted something, Arya could contact room service because for 24 hours after the operation, he was entitled to be treated like an elite guest.
Although it felt pleasant and made him smile like a child who had just received a new toy, he had to go home immediately to meet his wife and tell her the good news.
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The sky was dark when Arya looked out the taxi window. The full moon, which should have illuminated the night, seemed almost useless due to the glare of the tall buildings' lights.
Arya's surgery began around 10 o'clock in the morning, but when he woke up, the staff said it was already 7 o'clock at night. With the final procedures and follow-up therapy and a little paperwork, he was only able to be in the VIP room at 9 o'clock, 2 hours after the surgery was done.
The process took almost 12 hours. That did not include the rest period after the surgery, because normally, Arya had to stay in the VIP room until at least the next day.
Even so, he wanted to see his wife immediately and give her the surprise sooner.
After a while, he finally arrived at an apartment building located quite far from the city center. Arya paid the taxi driver with the last of his money and immediately entered the apartment.
His room was on the top floor, the 5th floor, and he immediately took the elevator up to that floor.
He met several people he recognized as neighbors who lived on the same floor as him.
Arya tried to talk to them as familiarly as usual, but for some reason they seemed awkward when they saw him. He tried to ask them questions, but they seemed to try to change the subject and instead discussed trivial things like the weather.
It was quite strange, because Arya had a good relationship with his neighbors, but for some reason today, it seemed like people were trying to avoid him.
*Ding!
The elevator stopped on the 5th floor and people hurried into their apartment rooms quickly.
They seemed to be avoiding something, and this time Arya tried asking one of his neighbors again.
An elderly woman carrying a basket of fruit. The elderly woman lived in the apartment room right next to Arya's.
Although somewhat hesitant, the elderly woman looked at Arya with a sympathetic gaze and then hugged him. "Be patient, Arya, life is like that, sometimes up, sometimes down."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" asked Arya, who did not understand why she suddenly hugged him.
Before Arya could comment further, the old woman hurried into her room, leaving Arya in the state of confusion.
When the man wanted to open the door to his room, he felt something was wrong, the door was unlocked.
Arya went inside and found a pair of army boots lying right in front of the door.
"Why would soldiers come here in the night?" muttered Arya, trying to figure out if the military's arrival at his apartment had anything to do with the fact that he was now officially a void hunter.
Three steps past the unlocked door, Arya suddenly heard a woman's moans, the moans belonged to his wife.
For a moment, Arya's heart almost jump out of his chest. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but everything was too suspicious. The reaction of his apartment neighbor, the unlocked door, his wife's moans.
Arya clutched his chest, which felt tight, and hoped it was just his imagination. He rushed to the bedroom and immediately found his wife having sex with a man he didn't recognize.
"Rana?!" Arya shouted, startling the two people who were still in the throes of eroticism.
The two immediately stopped and covered their bodies with the bedspread.
"Honey? You... You're still alive?" asked the cyan-haired woman named Rana.
She tried to cover her chest with the blanket. "B... B... But... The success rate was 20%, you're still alive?"
Arya's breath caught for a moment. "How did you know that? How did you know the success rate was 20%?!" Arya shook his head quickly and refocused on the main issue. "No! More importantly! What are you doing?! Who is he?!"
The tall, heavily built man put on his military pants and stood up without a hint of guilt. "Listen bud, I'm sorry, I thought you wouldn't succeed and your wife and I celebrated too soon."
Arya could only stare blankly, his mind stopped thinking for a moment. "Eh... Celebrated? What do you mean to celebrate?"
He still didn't understand any of it. Everything felt so sudden. But he knew one thing for sure...
Anger at the betrayal and the man who slept with his wife...
Without thinking twice, Arya immediately ran and tried to punch the shirtless man.
But Rana stopped Arya. "No! Don't hurt him!" Rana shouted with teary eyes and tears streaming down her face.
Arya's eyes widened when he saw his wife's actions. "Y... You... You're defending him?"
Arya paused for a moment and tried to process his wife's actions and the conclusion he could draw from them, which made him laugh like a madman.
"Haha... I'm so stupid..." said Arya, laughing with tears slowly streaming down his face.
Arya still couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. The embrace meant to stop Arya's anger felt like several knives stabbing his heart at once.
His feelings of confusion mixed with sadness now turned into disappointment mixed with anger.
Arya clenched his fists and raised his right hand in the air. "You bitch!"
*Bam!
"Kyaa!"
Arya punched Rana in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Rana looked terrified when she saw Arya. "I... No... Stay away!"
In front of Arya, he did not see a helpless woman who was only covering herself with a mattress blanket.
No...
He only saw a disgusting traitor who made his anger grow even more.
"You damn woman!"
*BHUK!
A powerful blow struck the stomach...
Arya's stomach...
The shirtless man who had been standing there suddenly launched an attack on Arya.
Arya, who had always been quite thin, and whose body was still not fully stable after his surgery, now received a powerful punch to his lower abdomen.
Arya's vision spun and grew increasingly blurry before finally going completely black.
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Arya opened his eyes and found himself lying on a pile of trash bags.
Unlike his past self, who had been thin, his current self was quite muscular and capable of hand-to-hand combat.
But of course, Arya understood very well that the two men in black suits who dragged him to a secluded place must have used blunt weapons to beat him.
He tried to stand up, albeit with some difficulty, and made sure his phone was still working. The screen was slightly cracked but still worked fine. Arya breathed a sigh of relief before checking his wallet.
All the money in his wallet was gone. He wasn't too worried about that because his void hunter ID card was still there, as well as other important stuff.
"Ouch!" Arya groaned, holding his back, which was bruised from being hit with a blunt object. "That damn old man, he must have deliberately told them to beat me up."
Arya tried to stand up straight, his whole body screaming in pain. "If I'm not in top condition, I'll need more time to rest, which means waiting longer before I can hunt void beasts, which means I'll be stuck in this debt for longer. That damn old man wants me to pay interest for as long as possible."
"Ck, I guess moving to different cities doesn't change anything," said Arya, walking towards the main road in dirty, shabby clothes that smelled of garbage.